Hulu orders four new e-sports series – The Verge

Hulu is stepping into the world of e-sports for the first time. The streaming service just ordered four new series from the gaming tournaments producer ESL, Variety reports.

The four weekly shows are: an e-sports talk show called Player vs. Player; a documentary series about a pro e-sports team called Bootcamp; Defining Moments, about rivalries in e-sports; and ESL Replay, a recap show.

“The partnership with Hulu marks ESL’s first original series on an on-demand streaming service, and will showcase the diverse nature of e-sports through high quality storytelling,” Nik Adams, ESL’s senior vice president of global media rights and distribution, said in a statement. “E-sports appeals to a younger, more digitally savvy audience, so Hulu is a perfect platform to build out our original content and expose the world of e-sports to new audiences.”

Hulu recently announced it plans to spend around $2.5 billion on content this year, and e-sports (predicted to be a $1.5 billion industry by 2020, according to Business Insider) is probably a decent place to start. Netflix is also betting big on original content, but it hasn’t announced any e-sports reality shows yet.